The rope-tuned Meinl Headliner Djembe from the Congo Series is carved from one solid piece of plantation grown mahogany wood and features the traditional Mali Weave tuning system. Its hand-selected goat skin head combined with the African-style ornamental painting offers authentic Djembe tones and looks for an easy to swallow price. This hand drum delivers beautifully rich bass tones with quick, high slap tones.

My church has a general-purpose djembe made of pvc and synthetic head. It's alright, but when I began looking into "real" djembe's, it made me yearn for a solid-wood, genuine goat-skin head djembe. Most of those I found were crazy expensive. I ordered this one hesitantly, worried about getting a cheap drum.

What I got is awesome. Heavy, solid carved wood, just as advertised. A thick goat-skin head that feels like it can handle me learning how to djembe without being afraid I'm gonna break it. Rope-tuned tightly, and a look that says "THIS is a djembe."

I included a "con" of a "rough interior", simply because you could probably get scratched a bit by putting your hand inside the drum. From what I've read, it's best to have a smooth interior. But still...I don't think it's much of a con.

It's got a great deep full sound in the middle, and varying tones around the edges. I'm still finding the sweet spots, and my kids love to play it too.

This thing is awesome. The review is actually wrong. What appears to be "paint" towards the bottom is really just carved into the mahogany. Great little drum, amazing song. The only thing I am worried about is replacing the head. I imagine it costs more than the drum.